Weekly Newsletter

‘Rings,’ ‘Alien’ top DVD nods

James Earl Jones, Jessica Alba, Bob Hoskins, Martin Short and Jack Black were among those honored Tuesday at the 2003 DVD Exclusive Awards with kudos for performances in pics that premiered exclusively on DVD this year.

“The Alien Quadrilogy” matched “The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers Special Extended” with two of the top honors for special editions, and Dick Van Dyke was on hand to collect an award for best TV show on DVD, more than 40 years after the broadcast debut of “The Dick Van Dyke Show — Season One.”

Disney’s “101 Dalmatians 2: Patch’s London Adventure” and the star-studded indie film “Interstate 60” from “Back to the Future” writer-producer Bob Gale took top honors for animated and live-action DVD movies, respectively.

Telecast set

Jenny McCarthy, who faced the crowd of more than 700 at the Wiltern LG Theater wearing a dress made of DVDs, hosted the fast-paced evening, which will be televised on FX at 8 p.m. Dec. 9.

Unique vehicles from the year’s DVD movies rolled up to the red carpet, including the colorful Mystery Machine van with star Scooby-Doo, original and new Mini Coopers repping both DVD versions of “The Italian Job,” the Animal House Death Mobile and street rods from “2 Fast 2 Furious.”

The program inside was filled with tributes to filmmakers Michael Bay and Ridley Scott, and to companies and franchises that offer innovative bonus features, from Pixar Animation Studios to franchises such as “American Pie,” “Scooby-Doo” and “The Lion King.”

Following a clip package from DVDs featuring classic music from Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby to the Beatles, the Who and Led Zeppelin, Roger Daltrey presented the award for original song in a DVD premiere movie to Jack Black’s outrageous and profane “Golden Rule Song” from New Line Home Entertainment’s “Run Ronnie Run.” A handful of writers accepted the award, led by Bob Odenkirk, also nominated as director of “Melvin Goes to Dinner,” the latter making its format debut Dec. 16.

Fox’s “Alien Quadrilogy” was named best overall DVD and classic movie, and also picked up an award for audio commentary by the cast and crew of “Alien” the same day the giant nine-disc set was released in stores.

The 600 DVD Exclusive Academy members — filmmakers and TV and DVD producers — judge new DVDs all year, receiving advance copies of discs being released late in the year.

Talent behind the toon

The awards’ 23 categories include animated character performance, honoring both a voice actor and an animator; it was one of five prizes presented to Disney’s “101 Dalmatians 2,” with Short and character design supervisor Dan Root sharing the prize for creating the character of fashion designer Lars.

Disney’s recently released “Finding Nemo” disc won awards for menu design; games and interactivities; and deleted scenes, outtakes and bloopers.

Alba, Hoskins and Brenda Blethyn were named best actress, actor and supporting actor, respectively, for New Line Home Entertainment’s British period drama “The Sleeping Dictionary.” Pic also won for cinematography.

The supporting actor award went to Jones for his perf in Lions Gate’s psychological drama “Finder’s Fee,” written and directed by “Survivor” host Jeff Probst, who announced the category’s nominees via video from the secret location of the next season of “Survivor.”

Gale accepted awards as producer of Screen Media’s “Interstate 60” as well as screenplay.

In one of the surprise awards, Michael Arrick’s docu “West Side Memories” on MGM’s “West Side Stories” beat other behind-the-scenes programs from “The Indiana Jones Trilogy,” “Alien,” “Finding Nemo” and “The Lord of the Rings.”

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